3. Isabel and Her Pocket Draeken Visit the Boneyard
Isabel and Her Pocket Draeken Visit the Boneyard
ISABEL
I sabel whistles, swinging her empty wicker basket as she hobbles down the path, her staff clutched in her free hand as it strikes the earth.
The sun is a puddle of yellow in a great lake with lazy clouds drifting about, and the breeze feels nice blowing through her damp curls. It tickles her sensitive horns and makes them twitch.
Behind Isabel’s cottage are rolling hills and flower fields, and in front lies a giant forest that cuts into town.
She smiles.
Today is her favorite day—once, every week or two, she heads into town to gather supplies and stock up on the food she can’t find for herself in the forest, like the special cream she puts on her cinnamon rolls.
Gloria still hasn’t given in and told Isabel the recipe, so she’s nearly fifty attempts into making pumpkin-cinnamon-roll cream herself.
Also, it’s the end of the week, so the library will have new book shipments from Aelestis and her favorite ink from Teotlnēchīcā.
Kaelen trots at Isabel’s side. The takops, or pocket draek?n—named so because of their ability to shift size, from big enough to ride on to small enough to fit in a pocket—is currently the size of a large dog, bounding off into the forest at every noise he hears.
“Settle, Kaelen, or I won’t get you those biscuits you love,” she calls.
Kaelen makes a disbelieving sound in his throat, calling her bluff as he nips at her heel, nearly trampling her. She turns back to give him a disapproving look.
“Money is tight, after all,” she sing-songs, “So you might have to get a job to keep up.”
He whines, and Isabel smiles fondly at the sound. “You big baby.” Kaelen is a draek?n shifter and the same age as Isabel, yet he acts so childishly. In draek?n years, he is a child.
They’d imprinted on each other by the time they were four, so now they are stuck with one another. Their hearts and minds connected. Not that she’s complaining, he’s her best friend.
Kaelen bounds over, nudging her side. He whines, and she pushes him away, laughing. “I’m fine, Kaelen. I can walk.”
The takops huffs, trying again before giving up. He shrinks, and she opens the pocket of her kaftan to let him fly into the warm space. He shifts around a bit, getting comfortable, before curling into a warm ball. He immediately begins to snore.
She rolls her eyes. “That’s why I told you not to stay up last night flying all over the mountains,” she says as she finally reaches the edge of town.
It’s a fair distance from her tiny cottage in the forest, a home in the hill covered in grass with moss trim around the single window and mushrooms squatting on the roof.
But, she loves to walk and strengthen her legs.
As soon as Isabel enters town, she spots Alvita, the guava cart woman. Alvita shouts, “Yoo-hoo, Isabella!”
Isabel walks over to her. The woman is bright and bushy-eyed despite how early it is. Isabel is up early because she went foraging this morning. She scoured the forest for plants for potions and medicine. Later, she’ll have to peel, shuck, skin, and dry them to prepare the ingredients for storage.
“Good morning! Lovely to see you, Senora Alvita. How is your husband?” Isabel shifts the basket to her other arm and lifts a crate of guava, which the older woman struggles to carry. She touches her nose to the woman’s in greeting.
“He’s good, dear. Home with the boys,” Alvita says. “I was wondering if you could come by my home and help me with the soil in my garden this weekend. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but my cassava hasn’t been growing well, and I thought since you have such a way with plants—”
“I’ll come by Saturday,” Isabel says, cutting off her rambling.
Alvita can get quite chatty, and Isabel has a long list today.
She’s nearly out of all her staple ingredients, like flour, rice, and beans, which had been out of stock the last time she came into town.
There was a shortage in the neighboring shire that her town imports it from.
“Perfect!” Alvita claps. “I’ll make lunch.”
“I look forward to it. I love your stew.”
Before Isabel can leave, Alvita says, “Dear, don’t you dare leave without taking some guava. The best in town!” she boasts.
“Of course, Senora Alvita,” she says, putting a few into her basket. I’ll bake a cake and bring some for you and the family. You know I can’t eat it all myself, and Kaelen needs to slow down on the sweets,” she whispers good-naturedly.
Isabel says her goodbyes and continues on her way. She’s stopped by three more townsfolk before she can get to her shopping.
First, an elderly man needs his chair fixed and can’t afford to pay a carpenter.
No problem; Kaelen’s good at building. A cat is stuck in a tree?
Isabel uses her charm to soothe the kitty and get it down safely, returning it to a little girl’s arms. A guard is sick, so she gives him the last of her allergy tonics.
She’s sweating when she enters Bastama’s local tavern, the Sheepshead, her brown skin glistening and the little bell over the door chiming out what sounds like a sheep’s cry.
“Greetings, Laisa,” Isabel says. The woman behind the bar sets a glass in front of a man who looks like he might topple over on his stool. It’s so early, and already he’s drinking. The seat is worn because of how often he sits there.
“Greetings, Isabel!” Laisa returns, her face brightening.
The woman, who’s around Isabel’s age, has thick, dark hair like a cloud that sits perfectly over one shoulder.
She throws a rag over her other shoulder and leaps up onto the bar.
Her legs swing in wide arches as she perches on the edge, smiling at Isabel.
Her eyes are like emerald pools, and there’s a mole above her quirked, roguish lips.
“Look at that pretty face,” Laisa says. “What respite you are from these drunken fools.”
Isabel blushes. “Sorry, Laisa. I only came to pay Kaelen’s tab. I have a busy day.”
The woman frowns and sets her hands on her hips, her eyes scanning back and forth around the room.
“And where is Kaelen?” she asks. “If you’re paying his tab, he should be here, the scoundrel.
” Laisa’s voice is loud and gruff. Anyone who doesn’t know her would probably be terrified of her. But Isabel knows better.
Jumping out from behind the bar, Laisa sways over to a barrel, where she pours a large glass of ale.
She chugs the entire chalice before turning back to Isabel, who tosses her a few of the guava she got from Senora Alvita.
The woman snatches them up with a triumphant sound, like a draek?n hoarding treasure.
“Kaelen didn’t come in because he didn’t want you to kick him,” Isabel says.
Laisa raises her fist, which is currently holding the guava, and shakes it as if she’s imagining doing just that. “Well, tell him the next time he waits so long to pay up, I will kick him!”
Isabel laughs, dodging out of the way of a drunk customer. Thankfully, the place is mostly empty. It’s why I like coming in the morning.
“Okay, Laisa,” Isabel says. “I’ll tell him.”
Not that it would change anything. It’s the same song and dance with us every time.
“Laisa, are you threatening the customers again?” a gravelly voice calls from a room deep within the bowels of the bar.
Laisa’s face goes red, a blush spreading over her cheeks.
“N-no,” she says, her eyes wide as she turns back toward the direction of the voice.
Not that she can see its owner through the dark, weathered wood.
He’s in the back somewhere, probably doing boring owner things, Isabel thinks. “I was only speaking to Isabel, Tui.”
“Tell her I say hi!” Tui says, his voice instantly sounding more cheerful. “And can you come here for a moment? I need a hand.”
“Coming!” she shouts back quickly, her entire demeanor shifting as she speaks with her boss.
She turns back to Isabel and says, “Tell Kaelen no more drinks, fizzy or fruity, until he becomes responsible. And you, come visit again soon. You don’t come to town near enough.
I worry about you out there in the forest alone. ”
“I’m fine, Laisa. Besides, I’m not alone.”
Laisa turns to leave, then stops and throws Isabel a long look over her shoulder. “Come back tonight. Have a drink on the house. I miss seeing you around here.”
Isabel picks at her thumb nail, fidgeting. “I’m sorry. I can’t tonight.” She feels bad for making Laisa worry, but tonight isn’t good. The star she has been watching for months has grown more cracks, and if she’s calculated it right, it should be hatching tonight. “Rain check?”
Laisa huffs. “I’ll keep you to that!” She rushes away to help Tui, and Isabel heads off to the hatmaker’s.
She helped his sick little brother the last time she was in town, so he said he’d fix her torn hat free of charge.
Kaelen pierced it with his spear. That’ll teach her to join him on his fishing trips.
Once she’s finished with those errands, she finally remembers about the shopping.
Isabel’s getting pastries from the baker, her stomach growling at the smell of cinnamon in the air when Senora Bembe bursts into the shop.
The woman’s plump with short, dark hair tied up in a ribbon.
Her patterned chamba falls to her bare feet and tears streak her cheeks.
The door rattles open, and her feet loudly smack the packed earth.
The other shoppers turn at the commotion, finding something more interesting than watching the baker roll bread.
The woman’s shoulders drop in relief when she sees Isabel. “Ah, thank the stars, Isabel. I heard you were in town.” She draws closer to the young woman, her large bust swaying as she hurries to clutch her hands.
Isabel startles at the frantic touch, then looks down to Bembe with growing concern. “Good morning, Senora Bembe. What can I do for you?”